A great day ... Happy Fourth to all!!
Race went pretty much as expected. Hottest start in 14 years, 75 degree
& 80% humidity at start. Hit a comfortable stride early, although was breathing a little heavy with
humidity: 6:22, 6:12, 6:25.
Then start of not so friendly uphill for next 2 miles, knew my legs were
not fresh enough to attack, in addition to the weather: This is about what I
expected here: 7:21, 7:24
Alex joined me at Mile 5 for last 1.2 ... immediately I had to tell him to
slow down unless he wanted to see me hurl! :) I felt bad, because I could
tell he was all psyched up to pace me to an awesome time, but I knew after
coming off two miles of uphill that wasn't going to happen, and just wanted to
finish in control, it was too late for a great time to happen, Mile 6 was
6:55. Last .34 was a 6:30 pace. Hard to run tangents with huge crowds, so I
would guess the Garmin was probably a pretty accurate on distance ... another
reason why I knew I would not have a great time! Garmin AP was 6:46.
Hoped to break 42, but was fine with breaking 43. Top 1,000 finishers get
a commemorative glass, was happy to be in that group! Sorry nothing more exciting
to report, but heat, hills, & humidity are not my friend! Overall I was
happy with my run!!
The elite we picked up at the airport finished 2nd in Masters with a 33:03
(74th Overall!) & took home a $1,000. He was a good guy & great meeting
him. Alex took pics of him getting his award, & he gave him a signal from
on stage that he would call him, that was pretty cool. Winner finished in
28:05, Ryan Hall finished 17th in 29:15. With the big prize money & being
the U.S. 10k national championships, there were definitely lot of fast
runners. All the Kenyans & Ethiopians were on stage in sweat pants, they
probably thought it was a cool fall day!
Time for fireworks & beer! #$%^&*()_+!
Oh & the elite told me all he thought I had to do to join the elite
ranks, is double my mileage & lose 20 pounds! He had a pretty good sense of
humor. He was 5'9 128, I am 5'8 148. Easy 1.5 mile jog back to hotel with Alex.
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